So I am on my third listen of the series, and I keep coming up with questions. Also potential spoilers for books 2 & 3 below.
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1: Trevin D'Vils: Jenn and Gastrope keep making comments and having thoughts about how inappropropriate she is dressed. While it may be that what I find attractive (and old) may differ from other people, I am visualizing someone along the lines of Dame Helen Mirren in looks. Perhaps Tizzy or T-A-G could enlighten me further.


2: Exador: To me, Exador falls into one of three categories.
a: he is a complete buffoon and has managed to get as far as he has by sheer luck.
b: He has spent far too much time in Midgard to be truly considered an arch-demon in ability and deviousness or..
c: he isn't as old as he would like to claim as an arch-demon and thus is trying to make up for his lack of ability by overcompensating by using far more power than is necessary for what he is trying to do. Another thing that makes me question the age and ability of Exador is his reaction to seeing Elrose in the balling of the fight with the Liches and he is surprised by how Elrose makes use of various trinkets and items that he has about his person.

3: If this is discussed in future books, I will be satisfied to know that and wait, but.... how much mana/energy is required to perform a Phoenix Cycle? Does the Cycle require anything beyond just wishing it to be so? (i.e. a Pantheon/ Higher being to help to facilitate the Cycle). I ask, because it seems that there are only a few that know about it and even Tiernon seems to be considering it for the first time ever in book 3.

Yeah, I would probably go with Bradyman to an extent.

You don't specify how old you think Exador is, but he is considered a true prodigy, and both sides of this issue are brought up by other observers in future discussions.

A) Without him, even more incompetent people would not have gotten so far. I'm talking about you--Storm Lords!
B) His track record vs Tom and Lenamare is pretty bad.

That being said, he did wipe out an entire adjoining nation in a fit of pique and terrorized Turelane for several generations.

To be fair, the truly scary one is Lenamare. Either that or Lenamare demonstrate's Exador's incompetence, depending on your perspective.

It is not inconceivable that someone who is truly evil and yet, supremely incompetent, might accidentally (with help???) raise to the highest heights of power and privilege (you know "Most powerful man on Planet X" etc). I mean, obviously, this would never happen on your Earth, but it does sometimes happen on some worlds.

Few things, both Exador and Ramses are very young, and up and coming, "fast track" archdemons, neither is over 5,000 years old.

Ramses is, of course, Ramses the Great/Damned/The Mummy etc. Bess and friends talk about how he got his (mortal/Pharaoh) ass handed to him by the Demiurge between a set of nasty plagues and losing most of his army in the Red Sea when Moses and friends fled Egypt. Talk about embarrassing!

Exador is about the same age, both are very young, and were very active within a few thousand years of becoming demons. This is, actually, quite impressive. So they are very good, but very young, as archdemons go. So we can forgive some stupidity.

But, Lenamare is a mortal, and yet somehow who manages to compete on a level playing field with Exador. Very embarrassing. Makes you wonder if Lenamare is secretly a demon prince. He isn't, just thought I'd freak you!

Trevin? More like Dame Edna crossed with Karen Carpenter at 90 than Dame Helen Mirren at any age. Or maybe Sylvia Fine (Fran Fine's (the Nanny)'s mother) dressed like Barbara Eden in I Dream of Jeanie?

As far as Elrose, Conjurors have very little respect for Thaumaturge's, Sorcerer's or Enchanters. Basically, they only appreciate other Conjurors and Pyromancers. People that cause big, deadly explosions, or people who can summon others to create massive blood baths.

Phoenix Cycle will be heavily detailed in the future....

a) Actually, that is a good question re: Tal Gor. However, typically a totem is a bit more of a spiritual reflection of the shaman's true nature, and typically not another distinct individual...although being a D'Warg, Schwarzenfruze could possibly account, but it would raise quite a few questions in others heads...but as Tom is learning just about any crazy thing can be true.

b) It's very tightly shielded by the DoomNet and it's defenses, as are its elemental portals. They don't want to attract attention, or want leaky links to start passing through there and reveal the location.

And, finally, there are proximity issues, if the path out of the Abyss is present, but far away, the priest would generally have to track it down and force the connection through it. Hence the need for shielding, but even so unless the opening is very direct or near, you won't automatically notice it.

otherwise every time someone did an Abyssal Gateway, said links would reactivate.

Well, I have to admit that in recent years, the temperature in the Courts has cooled off since one of the resident arch-demons took over some small tech world a few years back.

The now-gone archdemon was raising lots of ire and tempers in the Courts because every freaking morning he'd launch these little ravens out of his tower who would fly around the city squawking out his various "talking points"

It was literally driving people nuts, and made it very hard for people to concentrate on their routine torture schedules and plotting for multiversal domination.

So at this point, the most powerful demon princes in the Abyss are doing everything they can to make sure he stays on that planet, I think it was called "Dirt" or something. Don't really recall.

Well, imagine an Abyssal intervention on our planet, started by the Doompire.
But on which side would they be? The above Archdemon while talking much, doesn't count as Diplomat, right?
He does employ lawers, but he also gets them looked up...

The only solution is to return to the advice of George Clinton and Funkadelic!

One nation, under a Doom!

A year has passed, I am on like tour #4 or 5 of the series. I still have so many questions that need answering. I am still quite keen to figure out what the Phoenix Cycle entails and how it is handled. Tom is trying to figure out how he could be a Reincarnated Orcus when he didn't follow any religion that promoted such an afterlife service. But I would argue that the P.C. would be self sustaining. Orcus himself fueled the reincarnation as he was a God.